The Cerebral Loungehttps://thecerebrallounge.wordpress.com
Relating Anatomy, Physiology, Biology, and Medicine to Life Around UsMon, 16 Oct 2017 21:58:20 +0000enhourly1http://wordpress.com/https://secure.gravatar.com/blavatar/cbe2129e4f29f286bd50abd0ad10e10e?s=96&d=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.wp.com%2Fi%2Fbuttonw-com.pngThe Cerebral Loungehttps://thecerebrallounge.wordpress.com
Post 127 – SPECIAL – BREAKING – Indiana Pacers’ Paul George suffers tib-fib fracture during scrimmage for USA Basketballhttps://thecerebrallounge.wordpress.com/2014/08/02/post-127-special-breaking-indiana-pacers-paul-george-suffers-tib-fib-fracture-during-scrimmage-for-usa-basketball/
https://thecerebrallounge.wordpress.com/2014/08/02/post-127-special-breaking-indiana-pacers-paul-george-suffers-tib-fib-fracture-during-scrimmage-for-usa-basketball/#respondSun, 03 Aug 2014 02:44:17 +0000http://thecerebrallounge.wordpress.com/2014/08/02/post-127-special-breaking-indiana-pacers-paul-george-suffers-tib-fib-fracture-during-scrimmage-for-usa-basketball/]]>(apologies if you see a gruesome still photo from YouTube video above – I have no control on adjusting that)

This was such a flashback of April 2013 with former students emailing me, “Prof! Did you see that?” April 2013 was when Kevin Ware had a similar tib-fib fracture. Although I’ve had several times students made me aware of “Anatomy in the News,” it seems like gruesome injuries on live TV give me most of this type of email.

After a day relaxing at our hangouts in San Diego coastline and getting all these emails, I did see videos of another gruesome tib-fib fracture. Evidently it happened on live TV during scrimmage for USA Basketball at University of Nevada – Las Vegas.

George’s X-Ray, courtesy @TheNBACentral

I have a similar post over a year ago when Kevin Ware suffered the same injury, on live TV, during March Madness 2013.

You can view the prior post for more details on this kind of injury – I try not to bore you by repeating myself. Looks one major difference is that George’s leg hits the bottom of the goal base and the twisting motion caused the fracture.

The internet has already posted his X-Ray, and there are some videos below for those with strong stomachs.

Even though this has captured lots of attention, remember there’s a family who watched the game and saw the injury to their son. George has completed surgery, which would include pins and braces to hold the two bones in proper locations. The Bleacher Report link below has a video describing possible surgery technique. His upcoming season is in doubt.

We do wish him a speedy recovery.

Kevin Ware Followup

Since this was on my mind, I went to Wikipedia to see what Louisville’s Ware has been up to. He did return to the court during the 2013-14 basketball season, then decided to red-shirt, then “On April 12, 2014, Ware officially transferred to Georgia State University.”

USA Today reports that he “watched in horror as Paul George suffered similar injury.” View its article for more.

Ebola is a virus initially thought to be a variant of another lethal virus, Marburg virus. Initial signs and symptoms appear like the flu. After a few weeks, the patient dies from bleeding inside the body.

Viruses like these are found in rats and monkeys. Some hypotheses include that a human got bit by a rat, whose fluids (saliva) got into human blood, and spread among the healthcare workers who treated this person. The CDC website also notes some people got “infected by the virus, but did not become ill” from monkeys imported into the United States from the Philippines.

What’s so scary about ebola is that there is no known treatment. Because of this and that it can cause death, this agent is researched only in Biosafety Level 4 (BSL-4) laboratories. (My blog post on these labs is the most popular entry in this blog)

Spread of Ebola requires close fluid contact, but it is unknown why some people who are gowned and dressed exactly like others catch the disease and others do not. Because it requires close contact, people who usually get infected are healthcare workers caring for these patients as well as the patients close family.

Incubation time can be as long as 21 days. This means that someone can get infected and not remember it. Even worse, by the time he or she gets symptoms, the person may be half-way around the world. Can you remember people you’ve been close to for the past 21 days?

Potential Treatment

An “experimental serum” was given to both Americans. Basically, a child got Ebola and recovered. We don’t know why, but these two Americans with Ebola have been given parts of this boy’s blood. They suspect he has some sort of antibodies or protection against the virus, but they do not know for sure. Initially I heard a touching story that the doctor infected had treated this boy and there was only one dose of serum. When offered the serum he gave it to the other American. I have since heard today that both received the serum. So, there are conflicting reports about that out there.

NIH will start testing a vaccine for ebola that has proved promising among primates. Today’s news includes releases stating that this early trial in humans will begin in September.

Before you leave, make a note where these countries are in Western Africa. For Americans, everywhere that’s not in the United States seem so far away. There are some flights directly from the United States to these countries. Knowing that the whole world is closely connected through air travel, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has 20 quarantine locations, including at the Tom Bradley Terminal at LAX. Because incubation time can be as long as three weeks, people can be somewhere else in the world before they even develop signs and symptoms of the illness!

Filed under: Infectious Disease, Public Health]]>https://thecerebrallounge.wordpress.com/2014/08/01/post-126-ebola-outbreak-a-bsl-4-agent-evacuation-of-americans-back-to-united-states/feed/0profchang140703095548-ebola-virus-chart-2-entertain-featureevery-flight-leaving-ebola-affected-countries-and-the-countries-one-flight-away_004Post 125 – Ask Prof: oral contraceptives (the pill)https://thecerebrallounge.wordpress.com/2014/07/26/post-125-ask-prof-oral-contraceptives-the-pill/
https://thecerebrallounge.wordpress.com/2014/07/26/post-125-ask-prof-oral-contraceptives-the-pill/#commentsSat, 26 Jul 2014 02:38:00 +0000http://thecerebrallounge.wordpress.com/2014/07/26/post-125-ask-prof-oral-contraceptives-the-pill/]]>Student asked me: how does the pill work? (a male student, no less) So I gave him the basics on what is in the pill and the feedback to the brain to eliminate the LH surge that causes the egg to be released at ovulation. So let’s go through the basics and the rest of the story:

The Basics

Oral contraceptives (abbreviated “oc” in medical jargon, and I’ll abbreviate it “OC” in this blog) are pills that are taken daily to prevent pregnancy. The most common ones contain some combination of the sex hormones estrogen and progesterone. (Do you know that men ALSO have these hormones?) There are some progesterone-only pills, so the estrogen is not required.

We’ll talk about the ones with estrogen and progesterone (called combination pills) because I’m more familiar with these (don’t ask me why). Pills containing some combination of these hormones are taken for 21 days, and then the woman either takes a placebo pill (included in the package) or no pills for 7 days, before the cycle begins again.

Progesterone works on the Hypothalamus by a negative feedback loop

Normally a releasing hormone (specifically gonadotropin-releasing hormone-GnRH) is leaves the hypothalamus telling the anterior pituitary gland to release follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH). The constant supply of progesterone from the pill prevents this GnRH from increasing LH, thus you don’t have the LH surge to cause the egg to be released.

Having progesterone not only reduces LH but it also reduces FSH, which reduces follicle growth (a chamber in the ovary where the egg grows).

So, to summarize, because I know how you like bullet-points –

No LH surge because:

Progesterone exists in the bloodstream (comes from the pill)

No increase in estrogen

So by negative feedback to the hypothalamus – reduces the amount of LH and FSH coming from the anterior pituitary.

Estrogen is included in some OC to stabilize the endometrium of the uterus (reduce bleeding outside the menstruation window).

Other OC effects

Progesterone thickens cervical mucus, which keeps sperm from entering the uterus, and thins the lining of the uterus, which may interfere the blastocyst from implanting to the endometrium.

Estrogen, included in some pills, not only helps to prevent bleeding from the uterus outside menstruation, but it also inhibits follicular development and helps prevent ovulation. “Estrogen negative feedback on the anterior pituitary greatly decreases the secretion of FSH, which inhibits follicular development and helps prevent ovulation” (Wikipedia)

You CAN get pregnant while on OC

Yes. They state OCs are 99% effective. So how can you get pregnant?

Most common reason is that someone misses a pill. You’re supposed to take it the same time every day to keep concentrations as close to stable as possible day-to-day (plus hopefully it helps you remember to take it). Modern OCs have the synthetic hormones in such low doses that the amounts may not in effective amounts after 24 hours.

Fox News in a 2008 article states 5 reasons a pregnancy can occur. We already talked about missing a dose and not taking the pill at the same time every day. The remaining three are:

Alcohol use. OCs are metabolized by the liver to the active hormone forms. Alcohol, also metabolized by the liver, may reduce how effective the liver is in “activating” the OC.

Antibiotics and seizure medications

Taking generic forms of the pill – The FDA allows for a 15% variation in generic medications. Because the current pills are so low-dose, the concentrations may be too low to be effective.

An arrest warrant has been issued for a man in Stockton who has TB – not for a crime, but because he has TB!

There’s so much I’d like to write up this week, but I don’t have the time. Keep up with current medical news (that I wish I can write on this blog) on Twitter @prof_chang

Filed under: Ask Prof, Obstetrics, Public Health]]>https://thecerebrallounge.wordpress.com/2014/07/26/post-125-ask-prof-oral-contraceptives-the-pill/feed/1profchangPost 124 – Special Presentation of Kippel-Feil Syndrome and the Bone Anchored Hearing Aidhttps://thecerebrallounge.wordpress.com/2014/07/19/post-124-special-presentation-of-kippel-feil-syndrome-and-the-bone-anchored-hearing-aid/
https://thecerebrallounge.wordpress.com/2014/07/19/post-124-special-presentation-of-kippel-feil-syndrome-and-the-bone-anchored-hearing-aid/#respondSat, 19 Jul 2014 00:56:00 +0000http://thecerebrallounge.wordpress.com/2014/07/19/post-124-special-presentation-of-kippel-feil-syndrome-and-the-bone-anchored-hearing-aid/]]>I had a student a couple years ago who kept coming back to my class to talk about her hearing implant and her very rare illness. She came back one last time this summer before she starts her accelerated nursing program at California State University – Fullerton.

I’ll call her ST for now – until she has the chance to read this and correct anything…and give me permission to use her name. Sorry for the choppiness of this post for now…

ST was diagnosed with Klippel-Feil Syndrome, which she didn’t know until late in her teens. She was diagnosed by X-ray, when the doctor realized two of her vertebra were fused. She then associated it with other issues, like a short pinky on her right hand (I think she said she was missing a joint!), and her loss of hearing on her right side.

Most of her presentation to my students focused on her hearing. She learned to read lips, and a couple of years before she took anatomy, she got a bone-conduction hearing implant.

Fusion of the C6-C7 vertebra (so it looks like).

She said the first time she turned it on was much like this popular video of a child hearing for the first time (this is not the same implant ST has):

Filed under: Bones-n-Muscles, Embryology, Neurology, Technology-Engineering]]>https://thecerebrallounge.wordpress.com/2014/07/19/post-124-special-presentation-of-kippel-feil-syndrome-and-the-bone-anchored-hearing-aid/feed/0profchangcervical fusion X-rayPost 123 – Smallpox, Anthrax and Influenza in the news (BioLevel labs at the CDC)https://thecerebrallounge.wordpress.com/2014/07/11/post-123-smallpox-anthrax-and-influenza-in-the-news-biolevel-labs-at-the-cdc/
https://thecerebrallounge.wordpress.com/2014/07/11/post-123-smallpox-anthrax-and-influenza-in-the-news-biolevel-labs-at-the-cdc/#commentsSat, 12 Jul 2014 04:32:24 +0000http://thecerebrallounge.wordpress.com/?p=453]]>My BSL4 Post is probably the most popular one I have, and CDC’s BioLevel 2-3-4 laboratories have been making enough news this week to last a couple of more blog posts.

Tuesday, July 8 – Reports surface of 6 vials of smallpox virus from 1954 that were found in a cold storage room used by the FDA on the NIH’s Bethesda campus. The area used to be used by the NIH but was transferred to the FDA in 1972! The FBI and other law enforcement agencies assisted in transferring these vials to the CDC for testing the day before. The CDC is one of two labs worldwide authorized by the World Health Organization to handle smallpox (the other one is the VECTOR Institute in in Novosibirsk,Russia). I believe this would be a BioLevel 4 lab.

Today – CDC announces that at least 2 of the smallpox vials contain live virus. They also set up a press conference where the CDC Director states he is disappointed, upset and angry over additional incidents, this time originating from CDC labs. Highly contagious strains were removed from proper BSL locations, causing potential spread of hard-to-control bugs. The Director states that labs failed to follow standard operating procedures, didn’t do proper sterilization techniques, and didn’t have proper supervision.

One of these events has to do with anthrax. The original June 19 reports, revised on June 23 on CNN, state that as many as 86 workers may have been exposed to anthrax because a lab “did not adequately inactivate the [anthrax]” before they were moved to other labs for experiments. People in these labs thought the anthrax was inactivated, they did not have proper protective equipment to prevent their exposure.

While doing this investigation, the CDC Director just found out a second event less than two days ago where a shipment of “low-pathogenic” bird flu H9N2 that was going to a USDA lab was contaminated with the highly infectious bird flu strain H5N1.

As a result of these two incidents, CDC is issuing, effective immediately, a moratorium on the movement (i.e., transfer inside or outside the agency) of biological materials (i.e., infectious agents, active or inactivated specimens) from BSL3 or BSL-4 facilities. The moratorium will remain in place pending review by an advisory committee.

I might go through these superbugs some more in the future, but here’s a quick summary:

Smallpox

Smallpox is caused by a virus in the Variola genus. It causes skin rash and blisters.

Smallpox killed a third of those who contracted it for about 3,000 years until it was declared globally eradicated by routine vaccination in 1979, according to the World Health Organization. We’re not even vaccinated for it anymore. Only two labs are authorized to hold these viruses since – as stated above, the CDC and VECTOR).

Anthrax

Caused by Bacillus anthracis. There have been numerous public scares, such as finding anthrax in the mail, between 2001 and 2011.

There are 3 ways anthrax can cause an illness: absorbed through the skin, breathed in through the lungs or ingested through the gastrointestinal tract. Early signs and symptoms all look like the flu. These workers were given antibiotics or vaccine.

Bird Flu

It’s a type of influenza A virus that reportedly lives among birds. There are many strains, including one strain, N5H1 that is highly infectious, with outbreaks since 1987. Outbreaks are common in southeast Asia, where high concentrations of chicken and other birds live among people.

Filed under: Microbiology, Public Health Tagged: anthrax, bacteria, biosafety, bird flu, bsl, cdc, fbi, FDA, flu, influenza, lab, Laboratory, nih, safety, smallpox, usda, virus]]>https://thecerebrallounge.wordpress.com/2014/07/11/post-123-smallpox-anthrax-and-influenza-in-the-news-biolevel-labs-at-the-cdc/feed/1profchangPost 122 – Fractured Vertebra knocks Brazilian star Neymar out of FIFA World Cup (with X-Ray Photo)https://thecerebrallounge.wordpress.com/2014/07/05/post-122-fractured-vertebra-knocks-brazilian-star-neymar-out-of-fifa-world-cup-with-x-ray-photo/
https://thecerebrallounge.wordpress.com/2014/07/05/post-122-fractured-vertebra-knocks-brazilian-star-neymar-out-of-fifa-world-cup-with-x-ray-photo/#respondSat, 05 Jul 2014 22:04:00 +0000http://thecerebrallounge.wordpress.com/2014/07/05/post-122-fractured-vertebra-knocks-brazilian-star-neymar-out-of-fifa-world-cup-with-x-ray-photo/]]>Like most Americans, I kept an eye on the World Cup while the USA team was in the initial rounds, then getting knocked out by Belgium last week. (oh, by the way, this is soccer – football for the non-Americans, in case you don’t know)…I even had a live video from the internet playing on the screen while students were in Anatomy lab. Can’t tell you how many people stopped by the room to check out the game (plus saying what a cool teacher my students have ).

Soon after the daily news of the World Cup fizzled from our headlines, I was sad to see a video of a Columbian player, Juan Camilo Zúñiga went airborne on a loose ball and ended up driving his knee into the lower back of Neymar, who immediately crumpled to the turf in pain.

The Injury

Since this blog is mainly all about what this has to do with Anatomy (I know I’ve taken some liberties to add general medicine, microbiology and associated sciences in past posts), let’s talk about what happened here.

They said the injury is on the Lumbar 3 (L3) vertebra. You can see from the picture below that it looks like the spinous process has cracked from the lamina. This is painful! Remember that all of these processes are connected to muscles, many to the erector spinae set that keeps our backs straight.

I would imagine that he’ll be in a back brace to prevent some of these muscles from contracting. Keeping these muscles still will help in bone fusion, because that spinous process won’t move as much.

Team doctor says no surgery is needed. Recovery time is 2-6 months, based on various reports.

Filed under: Bones-n-Muscles Tagged: football, Fracture, lamina, laminae, pedicle, process, soccer, spinous, vertebra]]>https://thecerebrallounge.wordpress.com/2014/07/05/post-122-fractured-vertebra-knocks-brazilian-star-neymar-out-of-fifa-world-cup-with-x-ray-photo/feed/0profchangPost 121 – Anatomical Man comes to life in Australia (Video)https://thecerebrallounge.wordpress.com/2014/06/27/post-121-anatomical-man-comes-to-life-in-australia-video/
https://thecerebrallounge.wordpress.com/2014/06/27/post-121-anatomical-man-comes-to-life-in-australia-video/#respondFri, 27 Jun 2014 22:01:00 +0000http://thecerebrallounge.wordpress.com/2014/06/27/post-121-anatomical-man-comes-to-life-in-australia-video/]]>Honestly, I thought I already posted this long ago, but during a discussion in one of my summer classes, I found out I hadn’t – so here it is, thanks to my student Aliya for finding the initial link.

In an anatomy class at RMIT University in Melbourne, a student is transformed with the help of art students over 18 hours to the “Anatomical Man.” They painted all the superficial muscles and had him pose to show muscle location and movements.

As it gets warmer here in California, here’s a thought: it’s winter down under

The article states, “As of last week, 3,458 cases of pertussis, or whooping cough, have been reported to the state Department of Public Health in 2014, more than the total for last year. In the last two weeks, more than 800 cases have been reported.

“In Orange County, Health Care Agency spokeswoman Nicole Stanfield said there have been 98 cases, including 22 infants.

“The state said pertussis is cyclical and peaks every three to five years. The most recent peak was in 2010 when 10 babies died in the worst outbreak in 50 years. This year, two infant deaths have been reported.

“For children, a typical case of pertussis starts with a cough and runny nose for one to two weeks, according to the state’s description of symptoms. The cough then worsens and children may have rapid coughing spells that end with a “whooping” sound. Young infants may not have typical pertussis symptoms and may have no apparent cough. Parents may describe episodes in which the infant’s face turns red or purple. For adults, pertussis may simply be a cough that persists for several weeks.

“The recent outbreaks have been attributed to a change in the vaccine.

“Research after the 2010 pertussis outbreak found that the vaccine offers less protection after changes were made in the 1990s to reduce side effects. The original vaccine, developed in the 1940s, could cause fever as well as pain, redness and swelling at the injection site and, on rare occasions, seizures.

So what is Pertussis?

It’s a highly contagious illness caused by a bacteria, Bordetella pertussis. The vaccine is the primary prevention method. Usually it’s younger kids and elderly who tend to get this.

First stage of the illness is very much like the common cold: runny nose, sneezing, low-grade fever. This lasts for about 3 weeks. Treatment is an antibiotic, usually erythromycin or azithromycin.

The Orange County Health Care Agency says 90% of deaths occur in infants under 6 months of age. They recommend a treatment of 5 doses of DTaP (Diptheria, Tetanus, acellular Pertussis) vaccine, with one dose at each of the following ages: 2, 4, 6, and 15 through 18 months and 4 through 6 years.

Measles cases have hit a 20-year high in the United States, a troubling increase fueled by international travel by people who have not been vaccinated against the virus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday. Between Jan. 1 and May 23 of this year, 288 measles cases were reported to the federal health agency, the highest year-to-date total since 1994, officials said.

Health officials say 307 cases have been reported since New Year’s Day. About half have been in the past month — most from a huge outbreak in unvaccinated Amish communities in Ohio.

Meanwhile in California, the measles outbreak has effectively been contained. The Golden State has reported 60 cases of measles since the beginning of the year, but in early May a state health official confirmed there was no more local transmission of the disease. A number of the cases have been linked to travelers who caught the virus abroad and spread it in the United States among unvaccinated people. Many of the travelers had been to the Philippines, where a recent measles epidemic has caused more than 30,000 illnesses.

Filed under: Infectious Disease, Uncategorized]]>https://thecerebrallounge.wordpress.com/2014/06/06/post-119-measles-follow-up-cases-double/feed/0profchangPost 118: End of Term – Dermographiahttps://thecerebrallounge.wordpress.com/2014/05/30/post-118-end-of-term-dermographia/
https://thecerebrallounge.wordpress.com/2014/05/30/post-118-end-of-term-dermographia/#respondFri, 30 May 2014 23:45:48 +0000http://thecerebrallounge.wordpress.com/?p=440]]>Apologies for the delay in posting – last week was the end of term, deadline to submit grades for one college, then I flew out to Florida for a conference with other Anatomy and Physiology professors. Busy week!

One of my students did a short presentation after lab practicals were done describing her dermographism. While I videotaped a part of the excellent presentation (found below), this gives me a great opportunity to talk a little about this fascinating illness.

L50.3 is the ICD-10 code for Dermographic Uticaria

Dermographism is an allergy

Dermographism is officially known as “dermatographic uticaria” and affects 4-5% of the world’s population. Uticaria is also known as hives and is known for a burning sensation and pale, red, itchy bumps on the skin. Dermographism is this red, raised skin soon after rubbing or scratching in an area. My favorite source that you can’t cite, Wikipedia, says that it normally stays that way for about 30 minutes.

Cause and Treatment

It is thought the cause is from mast cells that have a weak membrane. So rubbing or scratching the skin will break the cell’s plasma membrane and release histamine, which will cause the allergic reaction in the area.

Because histamine is involved in these reactions, antihistamines are the treatment of choice. Sometimes both H1- and H2-antagonists are needed. Both of these drug classes block the histamine receptors. Cimetidine is an H2-antagonist often prescribed for dermographism. Chromoglycate is a drug known to block histamine from being released to start with, but is not effective when taken orally.

Filed under: Skin-Integument-Plastic Surgery Tagged: allergy, antihistamine, cell, dermatographia, dermatographism, dermatology, dermographia, dermographism, histamine, hives, immunology, integument, mast cells, membrane, redness, skin, swelling, uticaria]]>https://thecerebrallounge.wordpress.com/2014/05/30/post-118-end-of-term-dermographia/feed/0profchangL50.3 is the ICD-10 code for Dermographic UticariaPost 117 – MERS Reaches the United Stateshttps://thecerebrallounge.wordpress.com/2014/05/16/post-117-mers-reaches-the-united-states/
https://thecerebrallounge.wordpress.com/2014/05/16/post-117-mers-reaches-the-united-states/#respondSat, 17 May 2014 03:10:26 +0000http://thecerebrallounge.wordpress.com/?p=434]]>About a year ago, I wrote about a new virus that was spreading across the Middle East. In the past two weeks, news came of incidences of MERS-CoV in the States, now shortened to “MERS.” Both were health care workers based in the United States and traveled to the Mid-East to provide services. First person traveled from Riyadh in Saudi Arabia to London to Chicago, then took a bus to Indiana, where he developed symptoms and went to a hospital emergency room. I understand he has since been discharged.

In the second case, which is not considered linked to the first, the health care worker traveled from Jeddah in Saudi Arabia to London to Boston to Atlanta and to Orlando. He started having fever, chills, and slight cough during his first flight and it just got worse. Two health care workers tending to him also developed respiratory symptoms and were hospitalized.

While writing this today, I found that they suspect a third case from someone who was in contact with the first case.

Spread through flights around the world

Poster showing MERS Health Advisory from CDC

Signs warning of the MERS virus for people traveling to the Mideast has been posted in 22 United States airports in the past month, including LAX, Las Vegas and Boston. The posters state steps to reduce risk of transmission.

So what would they do in the hospital?

Disclaimer: What I am writing are expected, typical procedures, based on my experiences. I do not know of specific events for either patients’ cases.

MERS, based on reports, presents itself as a respiratory illness with fever, cough, and shortness of breath. Clinicians will care for it as a respiratory illness, offering care to reduce fever and cough and improve breathing.

They will, in the “History of Present Illness” (HPI) part of asking the patient of the illness, ask whether the patient has traveled outside the country. If the patient states something about the Middle East, I’m sure alarm bells, flags, flashing lights will go off in the caretaker’s head. They will isolate the patient. They will contact the local public health office’s “Health Provider Hotline” to report this case. CDC presents interim guidelines for healthcare providers.

New Information, 1 year later

I wrote that it was centered in the Saudi Arabia peninsula and there were 30 deaths and over 50 cases at the time. Oftentimes the first instance of a newfound “bug” can cause extreme symptoms and outcomes, until researchers find effective treatments against it. It takes time. This happened with the HIV virus when it was first found. It created great alarm and fear. Now, it’s no longer considered a death sentence.

The virus can spread from person-to-person, but only in close contact, like in a health care setting. There is no evidence of spread easily from person-to-person in the community.

Research published this month also showed a similar virus is found in camels. Genetic analysis found numerous substrains of MERS in the viruses camels carry, “including one that perfectly matches a substrain isolated from a human patient” (CNN, 5/5/2014).

That means there’s a genetic match between a virus found in a camel and a virus from a MERS human patient. It could mean that the MERS virus transmitted from camel to a human. This study is published in mBio Journal – http://mbio.asm.org/content/5/3/e01146-14

Those of you who’ve taken microbiology and want a review of coronaviruses (or those who are about to take the class can preview this class of viruses) – these viruses cause the common cold, too – may want to check out the CDC Coronavirus page – http://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/

Filed under: Infectious Disease, Microbiology, Public Health, Respiratory Tagged: airports, arabian, breath, breathing, camel, camels, coronavirus, cough, east, fever, genetic, LAX, MERS, middle, middle east, peninsula, respiratory, Saudi Arabia, shortness of breath, sob, syndrome, virus]]>https://thecerebrallounge.wordpress.com/2014/05/16/post-117-mers-reaches-the-united-states/feed/0profchangMERS WarningPost 116 – The “90+ Study” of Laguna Woods Featured on CBS News’ 60 Minuteshttps://thecerebrallounge.wordpress.com/2014/05/09/post-116-the-90-study-of-laguna-woods-featured-on-cbs-news-60-minutes/
https://thecerebrallounge.wordpress.com/2014/05/09/post-116-the-90-study-of-laguna-woods-featured-on-cbs-news-60-minutes/#respondFri, 09 May 2014 22:15:49 +0000http://thecerebrallounge.wordpress.com/?p=432]]>I like that 60 Minutes features Health and Science “articles” – seems like almost every week. Couple of weeks ago, I featured people who couldn’t forget a day in their lives. This week it’s research right here in Orange County at University of California, Irvine, that sheds new light on factors that may allow us to live longer and may provide insights on what causes Alzheimers and dementia. I have about 10 students in my classes right now who are LVNs or CNAs, wanting to be RNs, and taking care of the elderly in hospices or in home health care, and I know this interests them. So here’s the 60 Minutes article – note that there are two videos.

In brief, here’s what impressed me about the study on these people who are over 90 years old:

Exercising 45 minutes is best. Longer or shorter didn’t make much difference in longevity.

Vitamins made no difference

Up to two drinks a day led to a 10-15% reduced risk of death compared to non-drinkers, and it doesn’t have to be red wine

It’s not good to be skinny when you’re old

Most of all (and this relates to anatomy!), there is NO correlation between clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer’s and dementia and the tangles and plaques in the brain that we thought caused them. Back to the drawing board!

~~~

This upcoming weekend’s 60 Minutes (from their website):

Long eradicated in the West, rheumatic heart disease caused by strep throat kills hundreds of thousands of African children each year. A hospital in Sudan, founded by Dr. Gino Strada, offers a life-saving surgery for free. Clarissa Ward reports on Sunday, May 11 at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

Unless there’s breaking news, it’s likely this will be a topic on next week’s The Cerebral Lounge. I think one student even has that as a topic for his final paper! I hope he’s watching!